I'm reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy (I didn't know it was an Oprah Book Club selection until I read it on the cover--I just like apocalyptic visions that's all!)
Anyway, here's a curious sentence that uses "autistic" in a way that I don't:
"He rose and stood tottering in that cold autistic dark with his arms outheld for balance while the vestibular calculations in his skull cranked out their reckonings."
I'm used to autistic being used to describe children with a pervasive development disorder--not as a descriptor for the night. So, is the night pervasively disordered? Maybe it's so into it's own darkness that it will never, ever give in to the light? Then I guess that's some seriously cold dark.
Damn, is this what literature is supposed to do? Confuse you and make you think about what words mean? As soon as I locate my remote, I'll put an end to that.
5 comments:
Hmm, I guess definition #2 applies here? (from dictionary.com)
2. a tendency to view life in terms of one's own needs and desires.
Hmmmmm, is right. Did you look up vestibular too?
I did.
I'm thinking he meant self-centered, self-absorbed with autistic.
The vestibular mechanism(inner-ear) was a clear reference to getting his balance in the dark.
You want some bizarre metaphors that spring to life on the page? Try his Suttree.
Huh. Interesting. I read and loved this book, but missed this passage. Perhaps he means that the night is unaware of his feelings and perceptions?
Blah, Cormac. Why did you use that particular word? Now I have to get all literature teacher-y so I don't have to be peeved at you.
Could you post where that passage came from, Principal's Office?
The passage is on p. 15 of the paperback edition.
The paragraph begins:
"The blackness he woke to on those night was sightless and inpenetrable."
The sentence is about halfway through that paragraph.
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